Following the diagnostic observation on October 19th, these are my reflections and comments on “the story so far”. This is only a draft, although I am pretty happy about it so there won't be many changes, after all...
Strengths of my teaching
- ability to create a friendly and stress-free learning environment
- ability to involve every student
- ability to grade tasks according to unexpected difficulties
- ability to evaluate whether a task will be successful/too easy or difficult for the class I am teaching at the moment
- language awareness
- clarity of exposition of language on board – good check questions
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All these positive points arise from the following:
- feedback during my Tesol course (Brighton 2007), where both the students and my peers would give me positive response with regards to my interpersonal skills: every time I am observed this is the first comment that I receive.
- Having been a language student myself, I think I understand what will work and what won’t, and I am very receptive to different problems connected with type of learners or different L1; thanks to this I can usually judge at once if an activity will successful or not, and I can find a way to grade tasks according to the level or to the students. At the same time, if my judgement fails me and the tasks proves to be too difficult or too easy, I am very flexible and very good at improvising (the best example of this is my last observation during the TESOL course when the listening task had proved to be too complicated, so I improvised the rest of the lesson helping the students step by step).
- Language awareness is the result of a deep and thorough study of the language for more than ten years, through middle and high school until the completion of my degree in English language and literature. It is another frequent comment in the feedbacks I have received since starting teaching ESOL; in the school I used to work to I got a reputation of being very methodical, thorough and clear when teaching the grammar, so much so that students started going to the DOS to ask to be put in my class even though the level would prove to be too low for them (I normally taught pre-intermediate then).
Weaknesses – reasons – research and action plan
1. Time and classroom management: I could be a more effective teacher if I could use time efficiently.
1.1. When? Feedback from diagnostic observation showed a tendency to rush the activities, not allowing enough time for pair-work, although having if I had had more than two students I believe I could have done better. I am aware that I struggle with the idea that silence is necessary during the lesson for the students to “digest” the information that they have received so far or to concentrate on the task before producing the target language with confidence (Krashen’s input stage). This issue also relates to classroom management, i.e. my lack of confidence on what to do in situations when a pair finishes the tasks earlier than the other students, and I cannot decide on the best course of action (giving the pair extra work? Let them relax? Stop the activity and start feedback?)
1.2. Research: peer observation with a specific questionnaire that will focus on the areas I need to analyse (see appendix), with reference to the other points mentioned later.
1.3. Action: observation of more experienced teachers in my school (to be arranged – probably during the week of November 23rd) – focused study and research of management techniques from articles and books (REFERENCE!)
2. Board work: I could be a more effective teacher if I could apply my awareness of the language to every aspect of it in my teaching.
2.1. When? Feedback from diagnostic observation praised my awareness of the language, which is one of my strengths, and at the same time focused on the way the language could have been presented in a more thorough way, by including form and pronunciation (in that case, features of connected speech as it was relevant to the listening and speaking activity that followed). I am also aware that I don’t always provide enough examples on the board which could help a faster understanding of the target language, getting stuck on the context of the lesson: this could lead (especially at lower levels) to the use of the language only in specific contexts (e.g., when I taught modals of obligations in my pre-intermediate class, we got stuck on “must” and “mustn’t”, and my students replaced the latter with “can’t” even when the best choice would have mustn’t).
2.1.1. Research: students’ questionnaires focusing on students’ acquisition of the language (see appendix) – peer observation to get data on my use of the board (see also point 2.2.1.1)
2.1.2. Actions: observation of more experienced teachers in my school as per point above. Find articles which can help me with the organisation of board work in my lesson plans – at the same time, start focusing on lesson planning which must include a board-plan for reference during the lesson.
2.2. Board work: I could be a more effective teacher if I were more responsive to random vocabulary that comes up during the lesson.
2.2.1. When? Feedback from diagnostic observation; I have also noticed that sometimes I don’t give much consideration to words that come up during a group discussion or while pairs are working on a task and I am going around the class: this is due, I believe, to a series of factors, including the insistence, during my TESOL course, that only relevant words (i.e., related to the topic of the lesson) should go on the board; another factor is confusion between the words that I sometime pre-teach in a lesson (and which arguably should be 3, or 4, or no more than 6 according to different theories), and random words which could be useful for future lessons, or simply interesting for the students.
2.2.1.1. Research: students’ questionnaires focusing on what they have learnt during the lesson, to get data on what they found interesting or relevant, and compare it to what my objectives were before the lesson (see appendix). Peer observation (including point 2.1.1 above).
2.2.1.2. Action: see point 2.1.2.
3. Instructions: I could be a more effective teacher if my instructions were clearer.
3.1. When? I often notice that I have to repeat instructions twice, or that, after the task has started, some student asks what they have to do; this can simply be lack of attention when the instructions were given, but I am aware that my delivery is not always clear. It is also a point that came up a few times during my TESOL course; I am aware that, sometimes due to lack of preparation time, the task is not even clear to me, or that I haven’t verbalised it, thus it is still more of a general idea of what the students will have to do.
3.1.1. Research: peer observation.
3.1.2. Action: peer observation; experimenting different activities that require use of instructions to get more practice; find articles or books that can help me with this area.
Deadline for research
The deadline I have set myself is December 11th, which will give me enough time to collect data and start working specifically to improve in all these areas.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
PDA - Stage 2: Research and Action
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Background assignment, experimental practice, and whatnot...
It’s reading week for Delta students, but this doesn’t mean much, really…only that we can try and use this time to catch up with all the things we have to prepare, a list of which was included in my previous post.
So, where to start…
It’s the last week with my lovely S 3.2, as both the Czechs and the two French girls who have joined for this week only are leaving on Friday, and for the occasion it will be movie-time again, and possibly scones… if not my own recipe, then supermarket ones, as I doubt I’ll have the time to bake…or learn how to use that oven in time (first experiment went fine, second went baaaad, so have lost my confidence now, and I’m annoyed, being the Queen of Cakes and Muffins).
On the other hand, my S 2 class is suddenly crowded! From 2 to 6, how cool is that? Pair work at last, and discussions, and all that. Of course, things cannot be perfect, so one of the students is a Spanish university teacher who lives in France and teaches any sort of English there, who has lived in the USA for something like 7 years, and who said that the level of the class is too easy for her… Ahem…You’ll excuse me if the other students are struggling enough to keep their head above the water while I pull them down with complicated vocabulary, phrasal verbs, long reading tasks, and challenging listening! So today I did what every teacher should do when confronted with such a student: I drowned my class in idioms, proved to know I know a loooot more than they do, which is obvious, but above all, proved that SHE doesn’t know as much as she thinks she does (and her pronunciation fails her every now and then, which makes me, I confess, highly happy, hehehe).
What I have taught this week.
Upper-intermediate class: having got this horrible book to use, I did try to find something remotely interesting and useful, barely managed to, as it is really bad. I mean, I see the point of it, being highly task-based, so theoretically it’s good, focusing on the grammar, giving a lot of colloquial expressions too, functional language all the time. Bad points, which unfortunately outnumber the good points: the grammar is spread with no logical order (past perfect in Unit 5, present perfect continuous in Unit 11, just to mention something); BORING TOPICS! I mean, BORING! I found a unit with a reading about carrier bags, which in itself is almost as boring as discussing the weather in the Caribbean, I guess, but worse than that was the discussion following the reading, which included questions such as: “Do you have a favourite carrier bag? How long have you had it for?”. I mean, seriously… Also, crap listening stuff! Almost as bad as the ones in the previous book, which is depressing when you consider how important listening is in teaching and learning a foreign language. There would be more, but I’ll stop here. The point is, I used the book twice last week, and twice this week, going back to my favourite text book on Wednesday, and again on Thursday.
Generally, things went well, and I am now starting to think of my diagnostic observation, the feedback I got, and what I should do about my weak points. But this is another chapter of the story, really…
Advanced class: we started off with an easy thing, coming from an upper-intermediate book, just because most of my students are virtually advanced but struggle all the same, especially with specific vocabulary; so this was the beginning of the week, followed by a long article on male beauty, oversaturated with vocabulary, which they tackled and beat clear. Wednesday I attacked them with body idioms, which was seriously complicated for both parts, as there are so many, and I had only chosen a few important ones, that my guys were likely both to hear and to use, but they came up with more, so it was challenging on my part too, in the end.
All in all, not a bad week, albeit my eternal juggling condition… but it’s nice to be teaching such advanced levels.
Next on the list:
Background assignment for the first observed lesson.
Assuming I will have a similar class to the one I’ve had so far, I am focusing on “helping advanced (or upper-intermediate, we’ll see) students with understanding details in listening tasks”. Precisely, I am considering what Anderson and Lynch call “transactional listening”, although I have to double-check the definition; we are talking about the kind of listening where you need to understand in details, activate a lot more than a listening for gist sort of skill, here you are processing the information you receive so that you can then summarize it. As an example, I am considering the kind of listening I did with my guys for the diagnostic observation, where we were talking about mysterious stories, so they had to understand what the story was about, but there was a lot more than that, like years, and specific words that would make the situation clearer, and so on. The idea is that in the case of “interactional listening”, interaction can be minimal, being limited to a simple nod of the head, or random “uh-hu”s, and so on, and comprehension isn’t necessarily deep (talking about a party or something, you may need to understand only words like “good”, “fun”, “music”, or such), whereas in transactional listening there must be a deeper effort to understand/interpret the information so that you are then able to process and repeat it – in your own words, which is evidence of comprehension, rather than repeating from memory.
So this is it, and the weekend will be dedicated to this assignment, and to the preparation of the lesson plan, only the skeleton, thank God, because at the same time I’ll be working on my next point:
Professional Development Assignment – part A.
This is when I consider my strength and my weaknesses, also in view of the feedback I have received after my diagnostic observation, and which underlined the usual things I receive as feedback:
GOOD POINTS:
Language awareness (which include good use of check questions, examples, and so on)
Good and unobtrusive error correction techniques
Clear board work
Good learning environment (friendly, professional, calm attitude, not dominating, good involvement of the students)
BAD POINTS:
Instructions (a really bad point, I don’t know why it’s so difficult!)
Form and pronunciation of the language not on board
Board work, although good, could be more methodical, and things like random language could go there too, which I do, actually, but I tend to put words related to the topic, rather than random words.
Time management (another really bad point)
So, ultimately, not bad, and nothing new under the sun: the weekend will see me reflect on these points and start thinking of an action plan, which will include those students’ questionnaires I’ve been handing out for a couple of weeks during the past 4 weeks.
And for the final thing to do during what I (clearly) expect to be a loooong weekend:
Experimental practice assignment (stage 2).
And this is where I go “uhm, my teaching life is absolutely complicated, rushed, hectic 5 days a week and sometimes more; what can I do to mess it up even more? Oh, I know: I can try and teach using a technique I’ve never used, or teach something I have never taught before, and when I do that, I can get another teacher to observe me, just to increase the level of stress brought on by being completely out of my comfort zone!”.
….I don’t think I need to explain further…
So, this for an anticipation of the next weekend/week…
I do wish I had more time, considering how I am also trying to go to the gym 3 to 4 times a week, and chilling doesn’t sound too bad an idea either, every now and then… I bought this book at the airport, London: the biography, which I can’t wait to read, and will never do, I know, not before the course ends, in June… Even when I decide to take some time off assignments, all I can think of is books, and teaching ideas, and research, and photocopying more materials, and and and…
Yes, we’re all thinking it: I’m a total workaholic, and proud to be.
So, where to start…
It’s the last week with my lovely S 3.2, as both the Czechs and the two French girls who have joined for this week only are leaving on Friday, and for the occasion it will be movie-time again, and possibly scones… if not my own recipe, then supermarket ones, as I doubt I’ll have the time to bake…or learn how to use that oven in time (first experiment went fine, second went baaaad, so have lost my confidence now, and I’m annoyed, being the Queen of Cakes and Muffins).
On the other hand, my S 2 class is suddenly crowded! From 2 to 6, how cool is that? Pair work at last, and discussions, and all that. Of course, things cannot be perfect, so one of the students is a Spanish university teacher who lives in France and teaches any sort of English there, who has lived in the USA for something like 7 years, and who said that the level of the class is too easy for her… Ahem…You’ll excuse me if the other students are struggling enough to keep their head above the water while I pull them down with complicated vocabulary, phrasal verbs, long reading tasks, and challenging listening! So today I did what every teacher should do when confronted with such a student: I drowned my class in idioms, proved to know I know a loooot more than they do, which is obvious, but above all, proved that SHE doesn’t know as much as she thinks she does (and her pronunciation fails her every now and then, which makes me, I confess, highly happy, hehehe).
What I have taught this week.
Upper-intermediate class: having got this horrible book to use, I did try to find something remotely interesting and useful, barely managed to, as it is really bad. I mean, I see the point of it, being highly task-based, so theoretically it’s good, focusing on the grammar, giving a lot of colloquial expressions too, functional language all the time. Bad points, which unfortunately outnumber the good points: the grammar is spread with no logical order (past perfect in Unit 5, present perfect continuous in Unit 11, just to mention something); BORING TOPICS! I mean, BORING! I found a unit with a reading about carrier bags, which in itself is almost as boring as discussing the weather in the Caribbean, I guess, but worse than that was the discussion following the reading, which included questions such as: “Do you have a favourite carrier bag? How long have you had it for?”. I mean, seriously… Also, crap listening stuff! Almost as bad as the ones in the previous book, which is depressing when you consider how important listening is in teaching and learning a foreign language. There would be more, but I’ll stop here. The point is, I used the book twice last week, and twice this week, going back to my favourite text book on Wednesday, and again on Thursday.
Generally, things went well, and I am now starting to think of my diagnostic observation, the feedback I got, and what I should do about my weak points. But this is another chapter of the story, really…
Advanced class: we started off with an easy thing, coming from an upper-intermediate book, just because most of my students are virtually advanced but struggle all the same, especially with specific vocabulary; so this was the beginning of the week, followed by a long article on male beauty, oversaturated with vocabulary, which they tackled and beat clear. Wednesday I attacked them with body idioms, which was seriously complicated for both parts, as there are so many, and I had only chosen a few important ones, that my guys were likely both to hear and to use, but they came up with more, so it was challenging on my part too, in the end.
All in all, not a bad week, albeit my eternal juggling condition… but it’s nice to be teaching such advanced levels.
Next on the list:
Background assignment for the first observed lesson.
Assuming I will have a similar class to the one I’ve had so far, I am focusing on “helping advanced (or upper-intermediate, we’ll see) students with understanding details in listening tasks”. Precisely, I am considering what Anderson and Lynch call “transactional listening”, although I have to double-check the definition; we are talking about the kind of listening where you need to understand in details, activate a lot more than a listening for gist sort of skill, here you are processing the information you receive so that you can then summarize it. As an example, I am considering the kind of listening I did with my guys for the diagnostic observation, where we were talking about mysterious stories, so they had to understand what the story was about, but there was a lot more than that, like years, and specific words that would make the situation clearer, and so on. The idea is that in the case of “interactional listening”, interaction can be minimal, being limited to a simple nod of the head, or random “uh-hu”s, and so on, and comprehension isn’t necessarily deep (talking about a party or something, you may need to understand only words like “good”, “fun”, “music”, or such), whereas in transactional listening there must be a deeper effort to understand/interpret the information so that you are then able to process and repeat it – in your own words, which is evidence of comprehension, rather than repeating from memory.
So this is it, and the weekend will be dedicated to this assignment, and to the preparation of the lesson plan, only the skeleton, thank God, because at the same time I’ll be working on my next point:
Professional Development Assignment – part A.
This is when I consider my strength and my weaknesses, also in view of the feedback I have received after my diagnostic observation, and which underlined the usual things I receive as feedback:
GOOD POINTS:
Language awareness (which include good use of check questions, examples, and so on)
Good and unobtrusive error correction techniques
Clear board work
Good learning environment (friendly, professional, calm attitude, not dominating, good involvement of the students)
BAD POINTS:
Instructions (a really bad point, I don’t know why it’s so difficult!)
Form and pronunciation of the language not on board
Board work, although good, could be more methodical, and things like random language could go there too, which I do, actually, but I tend to put words related to the topic, rather than random words.
Time management (another really bad point)
So, ultimately, not bad, and nothing new under the sun: the weekend will see me reflect on these points and start thinking of an action plan, which will include those students’ questionnaires I’ve been handing out for a couple of weeks during the past 4 weeks.
And for the final thing to do during what I (clearly) expect to be a loooong weekend:
Experimental practice assignment (stage 2).
And this is where I go “uhm, my teaching life is absolutely complicated, rushed, hectic 5 days a week and sometimes more; what can I do to mess it up even more? Oh, I know: I can try and teach using a technique I’ve never used, or teach something I have never taught before, and when I do that, I can get another teacher to observe me, just to increase the level of stress brought on by being completely out of my comfort zone!”.
….I don’t think I need to explain further…
So, this for an anticipation of the next weekend/week…
I do wish I had more time, considering how I am also trying to go to the gym 3 to 4 times a week, and chilling doesn’t sound too bad an idea either, every now and then… I bought this book at the airport, London: the biography, which I can’t wait to read, and will never do, I know, not before the course ends, in June… Even when I decide to take some time off assignments, all I can think of is books, and teaching ideas, and research, and photocopying more materials, and and and…
Yes, we’re all thinking it: I’m a total workaholic, and proud to be.
Monday, October 26, 2009
I'm busy...as always...
In the next three hours, I have to:
- prepare an essay outline for my first assessed lesson, which will be on the second or third week of November; considering how I have no idea what kind of class I'll have then, it feels quite complicated to decide what exactly I will focus on... More to come when my brain activates..
- start working on my PDA; again, I have no idea what to write exactly, although we've been reminded of the things to include in what seems to be a really important essay, no matter how often they tell us that we don't even need to "pass" for this one...
I am just back from a fantastic Italian weekend, and having lost Saturday for a nice walk, a trip to the market with a proper cappuccino breakfast, a fab dinner with my friends, I am now trying to catch up, although my body is screaming for some sleep and quiet time... which won't come before Saturday, I'm afraid...
And now, for that essay outline...
- prepare an essay outline for my first assessed lesson, which will be on the second or third week of November; considering how I have no idea what kind of class I'll have then, it feels quite complicated to decide what exactly I will focus on... More to come when my brain activates..
- start working on my PDA; again, I have no idea what to write exactly, although we've been reminded of the things to include in what seems to be a really important essay, no matter how often they tell us that we don't even need to "pass" for this one...
I am just back from a fantastic Italian weekend, and having lost Saturday for a nice walk, a trip to the market with a proper cappuccino breakfast, a fab dinner with my friends, I am now trying to catch up, although my body is screaming for some sleep and quiet time... which won't come before Saturday, I'm afraid...
And now, for that essay outline...
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Can I have a bigger class, please?
Seriously! It's a bit exhausting, at the end of the day, especially when one of the two students is off (being on a long course they get Wednesday afternoon off, shame that the class is a short course one, so I ended up with not-very-lively- Czech guy). And next week it will be exactly the same...
Actually, if I can be picky and I actually get more students, could I have 2, or 4, or 6, etc? It is my dream to have an even number of students (more than two, though), so that the dream of every EFL teacher can come true for me: PAIR WORK! Yes, I can do it now, but it's a bit mechanical, and besides, they do turn to me every minute to check answers or whatever it is, with me!
I managed to teach using my own version of the Silent Way, today...only to balance the amount of TTT I was using. It worked, it was improvised, it was fun for the students too: cool. Ok, I agree with whoever it was (Harmer?), it's not about TTT but about TTQ (can be wrong there): as in, the quality of your talking time is what matters, not the amount, and I always make sure that I am using my time in a useful way. Still though, how I miss the good times when you set a speaking task to a big bunch of students, and then start moving silently from pair to pair, enjoying the sound of talk around you...
Actually, if I can be picky and I actually get more students, could I have 2, or 4, or 6, etc? It is my dream to have an even number of students (more than two, though), so that the dream of every EFL teacher can come true for me: PAIR WORK! Yes, I can do it now, but it's a bit mechanical, and besides, they do turn to me every minute to check answers or whatever it is, with me!
I managed to teach using my own version of the Silent Way, today...only to balance the amount of TTT I was using. It worked, it was improvised, it was fun for the students too: cool. Ok, I agree with whoever it was (Harmer?), it's not about TTT but about TTQ (can be wrong there): as in, the quality of your talking time is what matters, not the amount, and I always make sure that I am using my time in a useful way. Still though, how I miss the good times when you set a speaking task to a big bunch of students, and then start moving silently from pair to pair, enjoying the sound of talk around you...
Monday, October 19, 2009
Diagnostic observation and a blinding headache
...This should be enough to say how it went...
Allegedly due to a chocolate overdose, I woke up with a really bad headache; sum it to the stress of being observed; with the stress of having no clue of what I was going to teach in my PM lesson; with the drop in temperatures (but god willing no rain yet..keep your fingers crossed); with the mounting anger at the thought that annoying old teacher has taken my seat, and annoying old teacher number 2 is back from his holiday so has (justly) claimed his seat back, therefore yours truly is currently seat-less, well, put all this together and you have the explanation of my headache.
All considered, though, it didn't go that bad: I had backup stuff, because once again I had miscalculated the times (how could I? It was all going well, and all of a sudden I still had 30 minutes to go instead of the 15 I had planned!), but this shows the ability of thinking ahead to possible emergencies and having a plan B ready at hand; my grammar explanation didn't take as long as I expected, because the guys had a clear idea of what was going on, and no problems whatsoever, although in the end they didn't really use the target language as my objective clearly stated in the lesson plan... Oh, well.
Ultimately, things that I would change in this lesson plan: I'd have a better board-work. But honestly, there was a good one in my mind, and my mind wasn't functioning because of the flicking headache! So, action plan: prepare a written board-work for this kind of stuff, just in case migraine strikes again.
Allegedly due to a chocolate overdose, I woke up with a really bad headache; sum it to the stress of being observed; with the stress of having no clue of what I was going to teach in my PM lesson; with the drop in temperatures (but god willing no rain yet..keep your fingers crossed); with the mounting anger at the thought that annoying old teacher has taken my seat, and annoying old teacher number 2 is back from his holiday so has (justly) claimed his seat back, therefore yours truly is currently seat-less, well, put all this together and you have the explanation of my headache.
All considered, though, it didn't go that bad: I had backup stuff, because once again I had miscalculated the times (how could I? It was all going well, and all of a sudden I still had 30 minutes to go instead of the 15 I had planned!), but this shows the ability of thinking ahead to possible emergencies and having a plan B ready at hand; my grammar explanation didn't take as long as I expected, because the guys had a clear idea of what was going on, and no problems whatsoever, although in the end they didn't really use the target language as my objective clearly stated in the lesson plan... Oh, well.
Ultimately, things that I would change in this lesson plan: I'd have a better board-work. But honestly, there was a good one in my mind, and my mind wasn't functioning because of the flicking headache! So, action plan: prepare a written board-work for this kind of stuff, just in case migraine strikes again.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Finally, some (teaching) action
Following a very strange day, here I am trying to work on tomorrow's lesson, which includes the first observation, diagnostic, unassessed, but still scary in some ways.
I will only have two students, my Czech guys, which means a good environment, but lots of work on my part as I cannot really set up speaking tasks and let them go for hours without joining in. Oh, well, it's just my luck I suppose, and besides, it will only show my "skills" in keeping a tiny class live and awake despite the "boredom" of having a really limited number of students.
So tomorrow we are discussing modals of deduction in the past, listening to mysterious events, playing "The maze of terror", one of my favourite activities, and it took me an hour to prepare the whole thing, materials included.
The lesson before, for the moment, is a revision of narrative tenses focusing on short stories to read, complete, invent...easy stuff possibly! I am quite confident about it all, I have been observed so many times, everything is planned properly (as in: in more details than usual, which simply means that I had to think of a specific reason for the activites rather than a generic thought of "listening and fill the gaps with words that I taught earlier"). Feedback due on Thursday, which will give me time to write my self-evalution form, update my journal, start writing the Action Research Thingy where I consider where I am as a teacher, what my beliefs are, strengths, weaknesses, ideas for improvement, all that stuff.
Plans for the rest of the day, then:
first of all, I should take a quick look at the first part of tomorrow's lesson, although I have already spent about 2 hours doing so, in the past 3 days. Trouble is, the more I look at it, the less I remember, the more I get confused because I start thinking of ways to link this lesson to the other lessons in the week, and things that we need to revise, and problems that arose on Friday during the revision game, and all that... I do love this job because it keeps my mind active and jumpy.
Later on, a walk seems the best idea: the sun is out, the leaves are a beautiful colour, Stour Valley will be lovely, my camera is ready, and my body is calling for some more movement than the tapping of fingers on the keyboard or standing up to go get more books from my desk...
And finally, just a few days before I have my very hectic Italian weekend, starting Friday, which will leave me exhausted and at the beginning of the reading week, so I'll have time to catch up with books that I haven't read, and start planning my first observed lesson, and finish that ART (Action Research Thingy).
And now, before going back to books and lesson plans, I think a bit of yoga sounds appropriate...
I will only have two students, my Czech guys, which means a good environment, but lots of work on my part as I cannot really set up speaking tasks and let them go for hours without joining in. Oh, well, it's just my luck I suppose, and besides, it will only show my "skills" in keeping a tiny class live and awake despite the "boredom" of having a really limited number of students.
So tomorrow we are discussing modals of deduction in the past, listening to mysterious events, playing "The maze of terror", one of my favourite activities, and it took me an hour to prepare the whole thing, materials included.
The lesson before, for the moment, is a revision of narrative tenses focusing on short stories to read, complete, invent...easy stuff possibly! I am quite confident about it all, I have been observed so many times, everything is planned properly (as in: in more details than usual, which simply means that I had to think of a specific reason for the activites rather than a generic thought of "listening and fill the gaps with words that I taught earlier"). Feedback due on Thursday, which will give me time to write my self-evalution form, update my journal, start writing the Action Research Thingy where I consider where I am as a teacher, what my beliefs are, strengths, weaknesses, ideas for improvement, all that stuff.
Plans for the rest of the day, then:
first of all, I should take a quick look at the first part of tomorrow's lesson, although I have already spent about 2 hours doing so, in the past 3 days. Trouble is, the more I look at it, the less I remember, the more I get confused because I start thinking of ways to link this lesson to the other lessons in the week, and things that we need to revise, and problems that arose on Friday during the revision game, and all that... I do love this job because it keeps my mind active and jumpy.
Later on, a walk seems the best idea: the sun is out, the leaves are a beautiful colour, Stour Valley will be lovely, my camera is ready, and my body is calling for some more movement than the tapping of fingers on the keyboard or standing up to go get more books from my desk...
And finally, just a few days before I have my very hectic Italian weekend, starting Friday, which will leave me exhausted and at the beginning of the reading week, so I'll have time to catch up with books that I haven't read, and start planning my first observed lesson, and finish that ART (Action Research Thingy).
And now, before going back to books and lesson plans, I think a bit of yoga sounds appropriate...
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Mid-week and I am exhausted...
Tuesday, AM lesson
Considerably better than Monday's, thanks to more details and a deeper look into the book (which sucks). Back-up material proved to be useful to fill in some gaps, although we actually ended five minutes earlier, but being a short course, the students being tired as they go out every single night, and because they couldn't be bothered, it was ok.
Action plan: more preparation needed, again. Timing needs more consideration, as they tend to finish earlier than I plan.
Tuesday, PM lesson
A grammar lesson, mostly because I wanted to use the same material used in the AM class. It was good revision for one of the students, some new stuff for the other two, and due to a small board, it was also a bit confusing as I couldn't write everything that I wanted.
Funnily enough, on the questionnaire that I gave them at the end of the lesson, one of the students wrote the following (bear in mind that the class is made of three students): "The exercise was a bit difficult because we were three - pairwork would have been better"...DUH!
Action: I should start considering a plan for my boardwork, as it is usually clear in my head, but there are such things as TINY boards where my amount of clear spidergrams and stuff doesn't really fit...
Wednesday, AM lesson
Carefully planned, including the vocabulary that I intended to teach which was taken from another book, and I had a close look at the grammar, just in case something strange would come up. We started off with a game to revise the articles, really, which they really appreciated, and then off we went with vocabulary and discussion, a quick listening, more discussion to practise the vocabulary, a look at the grammar and a quick practice of that again. Finally, a bit of discussion using an activity from another book, so they could use the vocabulary learnt in the first part of the lesson, and have some fun discussing the people in the picture I had given them.
Generally a positive lesson, getting better and better. I wish I had more students, though, as having only 3 (and next week they will come down to 2) means being 100% involved in their work, rather than supervising it, and a lot more back-up because the feedback is always shorter.
Action plan: keep on organising in more details, back-up stuff still very useful.
Wednesday, PM lesson
Only two out of 3, of which one is the hyper girl with short attention span...We ended up chatting, with her leading the conversation, the other guy occasionally contributing, but he had a good time too as we laughed a lot and we practiced pronunciation in a discreet way... His comment was positive, at the end of the lesson, as he complained that "my jaw is aching for all the laughing". I take it as a good thing.
Action plan: none, really, as I had a complete lesson plan ready to use and we just got carried away by other things, as it happens sometimes, but it was good practice.
Considerably better than Monday's, thanks to more details and a deeper look into the book (which sucks). Back-up material proved to be useful to fill in some gaps, although we actually ended five minutes earlier, but being a short course, the students being tired as they go out every single night, and because they couldn't be bothered, it was ok.
Action plan: more preparation needed, again. Timing needs more consideration, as they tend to finish earlier than I plan.
Tuesday, PM lesson
A grammar lesson, mostly because I wanted to use the same material used in the AM class. It was good revision for one of the students, some new stuff for the other two, and due to a small board, it was also a bit confusing as I couldn't write everything that I wanted.
Funnily enough, on the questionnaire that I gave them at the end of the lesson, one of the students wrote the following (bear in mind that the class is made of three students): "The exercise was a bit difficult because we were three - pairwork would have been better"...DUH!
Action: I should start considering a plan for my boardwork, as it is usually clear in my head, but there are such things as TINY boards where my amount of clear spidergrams and stuff doesn't really fit...
Wednesday, AM lesson
Carefully planned, including the vocabulary that I intended to teach which was taken from another book, and I had a close look at the grammar, just in case something strange would come up. We started off with a game to revise the articles, really, which they really appreciated, and then off we went with vocabulary and discussion, a quick listening, more discussion to practise the vocabulary, a look at the grammar and a quick practice of that again. Finally, a bit of discussion using an activity from another book, so they could use the vocabulary learnt in the first part of the lesson, and have some fun discussing the people in the picture I had given them.
Generally a positive lesson, getting better and better. I wish I had more students, though, as having only 3 (and next week they will come down to 2) means being 100% involved in their work, rather than supervising it, and a lot more back-up because the feedback is always shorter.
Action plan: keep on organising in more details, back-up stuff still very useful.
Wednesday, PM lesson
Only two out of 3, of which one is the hyper girl with short attention span...We ended up chatting, with her leading the conversation, the other guy occasionally contributing, but he had a good time too as we laughed a lot and we practiced pronunciation in a discreet way... His comment was positive, at the end of the lesson, as he complained that "my jaw is aching for all the laughing". I take it as a good thing.
Action plan: none, really, as I had a complete lesson plan ready to use and we just got carried away by other things, as it happens sometimes, but it was good practice.
Monday, October 12, 2009
Trying to keep a PD journal - part one
...where PD, of course, stands for Professional Development, a part of the course which is not assessed and we don't necessarily need to pass, but the pressure to produce a good piece of work is there all the time...
So, here is a small summary of today's lessons, and considering how it was Monday, first day with a new class, new students coming to my afternoon class, and a long and tiring weekend on my shoulders (longer and almost more tiring than the whole week, but let's not talk about it), considering all this, I think I did quite well.
So, this is the first of many reflections which will be duly labelled as "Teaching Journal" - this is only an experiment, I plan to be more detailed and specific with a bit of time...
Monday 12th, AM LESSON – Level: S 3.2
The class is upper-intermediate and has been here for a week, with another teacher. The book used is Elevator, and the previous teacher hasn’t used it much (she didn’t like it). I had a quick look at it, but not very thorough. About 45 minutes before the beginning of the class, I decided what I wanted to teach, studied the unit in details, checked the first listening and decided that it wasn’t good, and made some alterations to the unit itself; I also prepared some back-up material in case the class was stronger than expected and I had time to fill in.
Being the first day I aimed at a general view and understanding of the level, including an evaluation of the type of students, in order to be able to create more specific lessons for the next three weeks (two of the three students will be here for a month).
The lesson went generally well, although the reading was probably a bit too scattered and unfocused, and so were the two language points following it, which I didn’t explore in depth (the first, compound nouns, had no explanation whatsoever and I had prepared extra material to cover the area properly, the grammar point about articles was not necessary as I noticed that that students could master articles pretty well – maybe we could do some quick revision later in the week, but spending more than 20 minutes on it would be unnecessary). The language point I presented wasn’t very clear, mostly because I hadn’t prepared it properly, and didn’t have it very clear in my mind – and the extra material for explanation wasn’t very helpful either. The speaking activity went very well and I was able to push the students for more language.
In the second part we did a quick listening, which followed and was followed by a speaking activity – the listening was half improvised but went well, although it was too easy for the class; I tend to blame the book in this case, as it seems to include very long listening with no specific language point and not very interesting either. The speaking activity that followed was from another book, and it was an activity that I had already practised with a previous class, so I was more prepared and could lead the discussion well.
Generally the lesson went well: the atmosphere was good, the students satisfied and cooperative, my performance, albeit based on improvisation, was good.
Negative aspects: improvising shouldn’t be the rule – I allow it only because it was the first day with the class, and because I was new with the book.
Action plan: study the book in depth, and prepare more thoroughly for the next lesson.
Monday, 12th, PM LESSON – Level: S 2
It’s a class I’ve had for three weeks, this is the fourth, and there was a new student. In total they were only 3, which made pair work impossible – I had to be part of the activity myself, although that was calculated beforehand.
The lesson was based on listening and speaking, the topic was food and lifestyle: the choice of the topic was based on being the first day with a new student, being the first day of the week, and it was well timed as the morning teacher had done body parts, which could be linked to my topic.
The listening was half improvised, as I realised that the two activities on the plan wouldn’t need a second listening (it was a very easy one again, as it came from an upper-intermediate book): therefore I stopped the tape to allow the students to compare the first part of the questions, before resuming the listening for the second part of the activity, before playing the recording one more time after they had compared, to revise vocabulary and warm up to the speaking.
The speaking went well although it was a bit repetitive, but on second thought it was useful as I could see that my student (who was doing the exercise with me) needed some help with the same questions that I had asked her before, so it was good revision of question forms, and conversation at the right level for all the class.
Generally the lesson went well, again because of a good atmosphere, and because I was more relaxed, being a class I’ve been with for a while.
Negative aspects: I should have listened to the whole recording beforehand (not just to a part of it); maybe I could have organised the listening activity in a different way to make it more challenging.
Action plan: prepare more thoroughly for the next lesson.
So, here is a small summary of today's lessons, and considering how it was Monday, first day with a new class, new students coming to my afternoon class, and a long and tiring weekend on my shoulders (longer and almost more tiring than the whole week, but let's not talk about it), considering all this, I think I did quite well.
So, this is the first of many reflections which will be duly labelled as "Teaching Journal" - this is only an experiment, I plan to be more detailed and specific with a bit of time...
Monday 12th, AM LESSON – Level: S 3.2
The class is upper-intermediate and has been here for a week, with another teacher. The book used is Elevator, and the previous teacher hasn’t used it much (she didn’t like it). I had a quick look at it, but not very thorough. About 45 minutes before the beginning of the class, I decided what I wanted to teach, studied the unit in details, checked the first listening and decided that it wasn’t good, and made some alterations to the unit itself; I also prepared some back-up material in case the class was stronger than expected and I had time to fill in.
Being the first day I aimed at a general view and understanding of the level, including an evaluation of the type of students, in order to be able to create more specific lessons for the next three weeks (two of the three students will be here for a month).
The lesson went generally well, although the reading was probably a bit too scattered and unfocused, and so were the two language points following it, which I didn’t explore in depth (the first, compound nouns, had no explanation whatsoever and I had prepared extra material to cover the area properly, the grammar point about articles was not necessary as I noticed that that students could master articles pretty well – maybe we could do some quick revision later in the week, but spending more than 20 minutes on it would be unnecessary). The language point I presented wasn’t very clear, mostly because I hadn’t prepared it properly, and didn’t have it very clear in my mind – and the extra material for explanation wasn’t very helpful either. The speaking activity went very well and I was able to push the students for more language.
In the second part we did a quick listening, which followed and was followed by a speaking activity – the listening was half improvised but went well, although it was too easy for the class; I tend to blame the book in this case, as it seems to include very long listening with no specific language point and not very interesting either. The speaking activity that followed was from another book, and it was an activity that I had already practised with a previous class, so I was more prepared and could lead the discussion well.
Generally the lesson went well: the atmosphere was good, the students satisfied and cooperative, my performance, albeit based on improvisation, was good.
Negative aspects: improvising shouldn’t be the rule – I allow it only because it was the first day with the class, and because I was new with the book.
Action plan: study the book in depth, and prepare more thoroughly for the next lesson.
Monday, 12th, PM LESSON – Level: S 2
It’s a class I’ve had for three weeks, this is the fourth, and there was a new student. In total they were only 3, which made pair work impossible – I had to be part of the activity myself, although that was calculated beforehand.
The lesson was based on listening and speaking, the topic was food and lifestyle: the choice of the topic was based on being the first day with a new student, being the first day of the week, and it was well timed as the morning teacher had done body parts, which could be linked to my topic.
The listening was half improvised, as I realised that the two activities on the plan wouldn’t need a second listening (it was a very easy one again, as it came from an upper-intermediate book): therefore I stopped the tape to allow the students to compare the first part of the questions, before resuming the listening for the second part of the activity, before playing the recording one more time after they had compared, to revise vocabulary and warm up to the speaking.
The speaking went well although it was a bit repetitive, but on second thought it was useful as I could see that my student (who was doing the exercise with me) needed some help with the same questions that I had asked her before, so it was good revision of question forms, and conversation at the right level for all the class.
Generally the lesson went well, again because of a good atmosphere, and because I was more relaxed, being a class I’ve been with for a while.
Negative aspects: I should have listened to the whole recording beforehand (not just to a part of it); maybe I could have organised the listening activity in a different way to make it more challenging.
Action plan: prepare more thoroughly for the next lesson.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Yes, updating would be good...like having a 30-hour day, really
...which for the moment is not possible...
So, for what is going on at the moment:
- started the DELTA. This means a looooot of work, tons of books to read, and stress levels as high as possible as I think of the observations, and of the little time I have to do everything... It does feel extremely good, though, when I see my desk crowded with books, and I spend weekends making notes, detailed tables, I jot down ideas, prepare students' questionnaires and learn of new ways to teach... I am a nerd, ultimately...
- contract extended until December, then we keep our fingers crossed, don't we? I do love it there: have just finished teaching the run with the hopeless L5 students, who are becoming more and more neurotic, suffering from acute blocking syndrome, which means that now they won't speak until they can see a positive reaction from me that confirms that yes, the grammar is right, yes, the structure is right, yes, that is the right word to use... So not good for them. At the same time, having such a large number of Arabic students, I see to be picking words and things from their language...funny.
- Have also started teaching advanced: how exciting! This would have never happened in Brighton! I was condemned to elementary and pre-intermediate, with the good excuse that nobody else was as good as me at those levels. Here they need someone for the advanced, and I am a teacher like anybody else, so here we go: it's so cool. Stressful as I have never taught it before, which means more preparation, but useful and interesting as it is good experience, and after three weeks I am confident enough to "try stuff", and the DELTA classes are very useful too, so have already recycled an idea, and probably will do again this week.
- Oh, am teaching my housemate this week. She's "blond", you know... Seriously stupid, I'm sorry to say. Called for hours on the Sunday she was supposed to arrive, until I finally picked up the phone, and then she told me that she was in London and would arrive at 3. Ehm...so what? Then on the first day she got lost and arrived at school late. Surprisingly she ended up being an upper-intermediate, in spite of her really bad comprehension and speaking skills, which include a really funny use of "hello" when she should actually say "goodbye".... Had to tell her off twice already for her extensive use of the bathroom when other people (read: me) need to use it too, and am looking forward to torment her in class, to be honest... The evil side of teaching...
In other news, am just back from an interesting albeit slightly disappointing day in London: but the exhibition at Tate was worth it indeed. And so was the lemon cake and coffee afterwards, and the stroll along the Thames with my friend, and the long talk we had about...everything, which for the moment means her acting, my teaching and studying, and John.
But this is a complicated side of the story, and too personal to mention here. I should be strictly a teacher online...So I'll go update my portfolio, then. And then, lesson planning, studying, note-taking, and Action Research Planning... This is a DELTA teacher's life.
So, for what is going on at the moment:
- started the DELTA. This means a looooot of work, tons of books to read, and stress levels as high as possible as I think of the observations, and of the little time I have to do everything... It does feel extremely good, though, when I see my desk crowded with books, and I spend weekends making notes, detailed tables, I jot down ideas, prepare students' questionnaires and learn of new ways to teach... I am a nerd, ultimately...
- contract extended until December, then we keep our fingers crossed, don't we? I do love it there: have just finished teaching the run with the hopeless L5 students, who are becoming more and more neurotic, suffering from acute blocking syndrome, which means that now they won't speak until they can see a positive reaction from me that confirms that yes, the grammar is right, yes, the structure is right, yes, that is the right word to use... So not good for them. At the same time, having such a large number of Arabic students, I see to be picking words and things from their language...funny.
- Have also started teaching advanced: how exciting! This would have never happened in Brighton! I was condemned to elementary and pre-intermediate, with the good excuse that nobody else was as good as me at those levels. Here they need someone for the advanced, and I am a teacher like anybody else, so here we go: it's so cool. Stressful as I have never taught it before, which means more preparation, but useful and interesting as it is good experience, and after three weeks I am confident enough to "try stuff", and the DELTA classes are very useful too, so have already recycled an idea, and probably will do again this week.
- Oh, am teaching my housemate this week. She's "blond", you know... Seriously stupid, I'm sorry to say. Called for hours on the Sunday she was supposed to arrive, until I finally picked up the phone, and then she told me that she was in London and would arrive at 3. Ehm...so what? Then on the first day she got lost and arrived at school late. Surprisingly she ended up being an upper-intermediate, in spite of her really bad comprehension and speaking skills, which include a really funny use of "hello" when she should actually say "goodbye".... Had to tell her off twice already for her extensive use of the bathroom when other people (read: me) need to use it too, and am looking forward to torment her in class, to be honest... The evil side of teaching...
In other news, am just back from an interesting albeit slightly disappointing day in London: but the exhibition at Tate was worth it indeed. And so was the lemon cake and coffee afterwards, and the stroll along the Thames with my friend, and the long talk we had about...everything, which for the moment means her acting, my teaching and studying, and John.
But this is a complicated side of the story, and too personal to mention here. I should be strictly a teacher online...So I'll go update my portfolio, then. And then, lesson planning, studying, note-taking, and Action Research Planning... This is a DELTA teacher's life.
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